The New Era

Many believe that the old saying, “it’s different this time” is never true. It is widely held that situations are never completely different; they’re just another version of events with slightly divergent circumstances. History may not repeat, but it sure rhymes, is another old saw bantered about Wall Street.

It is believed that the reason market events repeat generation after generation is that human emotions of greed and fear has always been and always will be present when it comes to money and investing. Today’s technological advances may create a contradiction to those old beliefs. It has made life simultaneously simpler and more complex, and has brought an element of change that hasn’t been present in the past.

Use Major League Baseball as an example. Baseball hit upon a new era with the development of steroids and human growth hormones. Old pitchers well past their prime became Cy Young award winners. Not just one but two players broke a 40 year old home run record in the same season, only to be surpassed again within a couple of seasons.

It became known as “the steroid era.” It truly was different. Fans were enthralled at the new found power of the times. They cheered along, but the Commissioner had to know that something was up. Those feats of athleticism had never been witnessed before, but the baseball brass stayed mum because ticket sales and TV revenues were doing great.

Now many fans are shocked to find out that the game was rigged by players’ use of steroids. They must have figured that players were just eating better and working out more. But no – things were different.

Today the Fed has done the same thing. They have created a new era. They have put the money printing press on steroids. Since August, the Fed has bought 70 percent of all the new government debt issued by our Treasury. The Fed is in effect monetizing our debt and creating an artificial stimulus for the economy. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke hopes that this crutch will be enough to create confidence among consumers to become a self fulfilling recovery.

Some very well known bond managers are not so sure this new era will work. Pimco’s Bill Gross calls the Fed’s path a Ponzi scheme. Gross believes that everything the Fed is currently doing will prove to be harmful in the long run.

Investors, like baseball fans in the steroid era, are currently very happy. We just had the best first quarter returns since 1999. Since the market was actually negative for the year on March 16th, if the media really called it correctly, it’s been a good couple of weeks! The commissioner (in this case the Fed Chair) is participating in the juicing of the game so to speak. At some point all this will come to a tragic end, but for now it’s just “Play Ball!”